Glens Falls hopeful again after AHL Flames announce move

The Abbotsford Heat announced today that the team will be leaving the British Columbia city at the end of the American Hockey League season but did not say where it intends to play next season.

The Glens Falls Civic Center, which is losing the Adirondack Phantoms after five seasons to Allentown, Pa., is desperately seeking another AHL team. An official of the Calgary Flames, who own the Abbotsford franchise, visited the Civic Center last month.

The city is paying the Flames $5.5 million to get out of the remaining five years of its contract, according to The News of Abbotsford. The city was forced to subsidize deficits in operating expenses as part of the agreement.

The Heat rank 29th out of 30 AHL teams in attendance (3,007). That’s down from 3,778 last season.

Former Albany River Rats head coach Robbie Ftorek is an assistant coach for Abbotsford.

9 Responses

It would make sense to move to Glens Falls. To start out, the team would have much less travel and more time practicing. Additionally, I read that with the subsidy to the team and running the arena, Abbotsford spent 3.4 Million (Canadian) per year on the Heat. That arena would be better served with a WHL franchise.

The AHL shuffle continues. Best of luck to Glens Falls in getting a team, its going to be interesting to see how everything plays out. Glens Falls might not be the only option though, how about Peoria? They were left without a partner last year. They had some nice announced attendance numbers and Calgary would be much closer to several midwest team.

Something that would be really interesting would be if Calgary goes to Hartford and the Rangers go to Glens Falls while they wait to see how the Bridgeport/Nassau Coliseum situation plays out. The Ranger only have two more years on their lease with two one-year extensions, so Calgary might be able to provide a more longterm tenant. Global Spectrum is also the operator of both the Glens Falls Civic Center and XL Center in Hartford.

Glens Falls can breath a little easier lol, Elmira NY of the ECHL just became an affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres and Rochester Amerks. On a side note, if the Glens Falls becomes the AHL home of the NY Rangers attendance in Albany might be in big trouble. It’s going to be hard enough for the hockey dollar regionally as Union all but stole the hockey spotlight for sure, not just RPI but the area’s two AHL clubs as well.

I’ve got to think that Glens Falls would have one of the most aggressive economic packages to offer a team. But their facility needs upgrades (locke rooms, press box, etc.) Utica had Esche as a former NHL’er to “sell” Utica… Im not sure GF has assembled anything similar in terms of a recruiting team to land a deal. Sure would be nice if Sen. Little engaged NYS Ec. Dev. & the Gov’s office to announce $$$ for facility upgrades to the rink, as Utica did.